Elder Cook Week Eighty-Five

A day in Piedras Bonitas

Hey Familia!
         

     We had a great week!  It’s crazy how fast it goes.  We went on interchanges [splits] with missionaries from Siguatapeque on Tuesday so we could help them out with getting papers ready for a wedding they were going to have.  The district leader I went with was way cool and a great missionary.  He was a UFC fighter before the mission!  We got all the papers done for the amazing family they are going to baptize. Then we went to meet the rest of the fechas [baptisms] they had scheduled.  I love getting to help him with some things going on in his district and how he could challenge the missionaries more.  It was great, but I left my flip flops down there, and it’s a good hour and a half on the bus to get there so I don’t think I’ll be seeing them for a while. 

     We went to a families’ wedding because we had to give their interviews!  It was a mass wedding of 20 couples, some didn’t even want to kiss!  They just gave like a side hug for the pictures. We also baptized a ten year old kid!  He and his family are all members. Right now we have 3 fechas. One is a 18 year old guy with amazing potential.  He lives in a small one room house with 3 other guys, all 16 to 18 years old.  They’ve all had tough lives and are all living on their own until they found each other, so they found each other and work together to support themselves.  He wants to follow Christ so much, and even goes a half an hour on the bus every Sunday just to go to church.  He wants to serve a mission.  The two women that showed up to church on their own last week want to change their lives to be closer to God.  In both their houses their families are strong Catholics, so we have to teach them at the church.  Today, there was a whole family that showed up to church on their own!  Man we are so pumped.  We are going to teach them this week so we’ll see what happens!

Love you!

Elder Cook 

Official hand-off of office card key

Elder Torres, Elder Cook, and Elder Carvajal

            

Elder Cook Week Eighty-Four

Hey Familia!

I`m out of the office!!!!!  I got sent about 2 hours outside of Tegucigalpa to an area called Piedras Bonitas in Comayagua as zone leader with Elder Jose!  (Not to be confused with ¨Piernas Bonitas¨ which I´ve said a few too many times by accident.  People sure get a kick out of the dumb Gringo talking about beautiful legs instead of where we are).  Elder Jose is from Nicaragua and is awesome!  He`s a great friend and an amazing leader.  He knows a TON of English so I`ve been helping him polish it up with some jargon from the states, like home slice and crackalackin.  We have the best zone in the mission!  All the missionaries are super obedient and really hard workers so we are going to have a lot of success out here!  We are about to meet our zone goal of 18 baptisms and 4 families at the end of this month!  Elder Jose and I just put 4 fechas last night as well with some people we met!  This will easily be my favorite area of the mission.  It`s not quite pueblo.  My shoes are completely covered in mud by the end of every day.  It`s beautiful here with a ton of green and open space, I love it!  We pretty much get into every house we contact!  And the members of the branch are incredible.  We`ve gotten 8 references just this week!  We found the most amazing family ever last night too!  They`re a younger couple that have a great desire to follow Christ.  They want to get married, accepted the invitation to be baptized, and are pumped to go to church this Sunday!  Everything is going great out here.  Loving every second of it.

I also have more time to study now in the morning, it`s so great!  I`ve learned something really important. I have started the Book of Mormon over again and I was reading in first Nephi where Lehi was relating his dream.  He said that between the people in the great and spacious building and the saints of God by the tree of life, there was a great abismo that separates them. That verse really hit me hard.  When it comes to our Heavenly Father, He sees things in black and white.  Either something is good, or something is bad.  Either someone is following Christ, or they aren`t.  Someone is breaking the commandments, or they are being obedient.  A lot of people think it`s ok to drink just a little bit of alcohol, or just miss church a couple times, or just do just a little bit of bad, and they can still be counted as worthy to enter into the kingdom of God.  But that is false doctrine.  In that scripture, it`s clear that there are two paths in life: that of God and that of Satan, and there is absolutely nothing in between.  It doesnt just say abismo, it says gran abismo.  There is a huge difference between a follower of Christ and follower of the world.  That made me think.  In which side am I? 

Love you guys a ton!

Elder Cook

Elder Cook Week Eighty-Three

Hey! Sorry I couldn´t write and I won’t be able to write until next week on Monday.   I haven´t been able to email much the past few weeks, it was kind of crazy getting the new guys and trying to train them. Hopefully this week I´ll get transferred to a little pueblo I´ve been waiting for!  

I forgot to send this email a couple weeks ago!   

Familia

These last couple weeks have been pretty crazy with the investigators we´ve had and found.  In total in the last two weeks we´ve found about 19 people and 5 families to teach!  But kinda crazy things have happened to these people after our first visit.  It´s really surprising how often these things have been happening lately!  

God has a plan for His children to hear the gospel.  We raise our voices, the Spirit touches their hearts, and God helps them along the way.  But as Elder Holland said, salvation is not a cheap experience.  Anything good in life is never easy to get, and that is definitely the same with the gospel.  People have to work for their testimonies and sometimes leave family and friends and be rejected by society and be more humble and repent and change everything about them.  Following Christ is not accepting Him in your mind and then automatically being saved.  It´s not choosing to follow the commandments that are convenient for you and ignoring the others.  It´s not being a Sunday church-goer and then forgetting about it all during the week.  It´s not deciding what teachings you like that Christ gave and taking out the harder doctrines.  It´s not about what you want.  It never has been like that and it never will be.  To follow Christ, it´s impossible to just sit and not act.  That´s contradicting the word "follow".  If you´re not working hard to get to heaven, you won´t get there.  When someone believes in Christ and knows the gospel is true, you can see it by their actions.  I know the gospel is true, this is Christ´s church, and a little effort can go a long way.  

Love you tons

Elder Cook and the new Financial Secretary Elder Carvajal

We were thankful to get a letter the same day from President Fortuna about the earthquake they had in the area. 

Estimados Padres y Amigos,

En el día de ayer se registro en Honduras y gran parte de Centro América un sismo de 7.4, se sintió bien fuerte en todo el país, pero todos los misioneros están muy bien no hubo daño materiales en todo el país y tampoco perdida de vida. Solo para su información y tranquilidad.

Dear Parents and Friends,

Yesterday we had an earthquake of 7.4 degrees here in Honduras and a great part of Central America, it was very strong in all of the country but all of the missionaries are fine. There were not any damages of materials or houses in all of the country nor deaths. This is for your information.

Elder Cook referenced a talk given in March 2001 by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland "Missionary Work and the Atonement" https://www.lds.org/ensign/2001/03/missionary-work-and-the-atonement?lang=eng

Elder Cook Week Eighty-Two

A few hours ago I was told I was staying in the office for another change [transfer]. But found out the office elders were just playing a joke on me.  Even President was in on it. After being here all this time I finally found A &W root beer!

*Mom’s note, we sent Elder Cook new shirts but he’s still wearing his stapled pocket shirt!